Leave A Comment

A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments – Day 23

Here is the latest cool comic book moment in our year-long look at one cool comic book moment a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here‘s the archive of the moments posted so far!

Today we continue our special Tear-Jerker Week of cool comic book moments!

Today’s “tear jerker” moment comes from a classic Alan Moore Superman story (the third of…hmmm…let’s now say four tear jerking moments from this story).

Enjoy!

To recap, we’re looking at the classic Alan Moore/Curt Swan “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” storyline that told the “final” Superman story before the Byrne “Man of Steel” reboot.

Yesterday, we finished up Superman (Vol. 1) #423, which was by Moore, Swan and inker George Perez. Now we’re on to Action Comics #583, which was by Moore, Swan and inker Kurt Schaffenberger.

When we left our heroes, we were in the midst of Lois Lane’s re-telling of the “last” Superman story. Superman’s villains have all become murderous sociopaths, and the strongest villains have gathered together (Luthor/Brainiac, Kryptonite Man and the Legion of Super-Villains) and are laying siege to the Fortress of Solitude, where Superman has holed up with his closest friends to protect them (Superman, Krypto, Lois, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White and Perry’s wife, Alice).

The fighting has more or less ended for the night, and Superman is talking with Perry (there is a great bit where Superman reflects on what he – Superman – feels to have been cowardice on his part not to have chosen sooner between Lois and Lana – it’s a great bit) while Lana and Jimmy make a fateful (and basically suicidal) decision (after making the decision, Lana then overhears Superman say that Lois would have been his pick, so it makes her sacrifice all the more poignant).

(Click to enlarge)

If I had to pick one “moment,” I guess I’d go with the “Nobody loved him better than us. Nobody!”

Great moment.

And again, since we still have one more moment left, please keep discussion of other specific moments from the issue until we get them all in, then you can talk about the moments all you’d like! 🙂